Retiring The Black Pearl
by JaxDepp
Summary: It was time to retire the original Black Pearl. And needless to say, Jack was NOT happy. So once again, Captain Jack Sparrow was in the market for a boat.
1. Retiring the Pearl

CHAPTER ONE: It was time to retire the original Black Pearl. And needless to say, Jack was NOT happy. So once again, Captain Jack Sparrow was in the market for a boat.  
*** The Pearl had been a very handy ship, in times of war, and in times of great need of sunning yourself on the deck. It had been used for enemy purposes and for the use of the real captain, Jack.  
  
Sailing into Tortuga wasn't easy when every five seconds, the boat more and more resemble a swimming pool. Which, don't get me wrong, was a great idea, if the swimming pool was also serving as a vessel carrying the greatest pirate to ever roam the Caribbean. When Jack finally reached the port, it was time to say goodbye to his beloved Black Pearl.  
"Wait," he said to himself, "pirates don't cry." But no matter how hard he tried to hold it in, his emotions got the best of him. He bawled like a baby for over an hour until Will Turner, his faithful companion, came upon the sulking sailor.  
"Jack? Is that you? I thought I saw the Pearl dock here, so I rushed down to see if my eyes had deceived me. Well, what a nice surprise!" Jack suddenly forgot about the boat. He felt better when Will was there. Suddenly, Will felt a tap on his shoulder and whipped his head around, alarmed.  
"Well, is that any way to treat your fiancé, sweetheart?" Elizabeth strode up behind them and looked astonished. "Jack! I knew I'd find you here! The moment I saw the black sails, I knew you'd come back." Elizabeth looked slightly confused. "Why did you come back?" Jack stood there with what felt like every ear in Tortuga listening to him speak.  
"Well the truth is," Jack paused for a moment, "Im retiring the Pearl." It turns out every ear in Tortuga was listening in. Gasps were heard all around the port, and suddenly everything went quiet.  
"Jack! Are you serious?" Elizabeth asked. "I thought the Pearl was your life!"  
"Well love, the Pearl was like my own personal swimming pool when I sailed in this morning. There was water up to me beard! It's time to get a new boat."  
*** 


	2. The Search For a New Boat

CHAPTER TWO: Will and Elizabeth accompanied Jack to the best boat merchant in Tortuga. Jack carefully examined every boat possible, but always found something wrong. After hours of searching, all the boats in the selection didn't pass inspection by Jack.  
"Best boat merchant in town, eh?" Jack mumbled under his breath, "I don't like a single one!" It was close to lunchtime when they left the merchant's stockyard, so Will, Elizabeth and Jack set out to find a place to eat. Suddenly, Jack spotted the perfect boat.  
"There it is!" Jack exclaimed, "The PERFECT boat for me!" Now normally Will and Elizabeth would be a bit more enthusiastic at a find like this, but immediately spotted why Jack wanted this boat.  
"Jack! Do you know which boat this is?" Elizabeth asked coolly, "It's the Black Pearl for heavens sake! You just got rid of it!"  
"Oh ya." Jack said disappointedly. "I thought it looked familiar." On the way back from lunch, Jack couldn't resist seeing the Pearl again, so he dragged Will and Elizabeth along too. But when they got to the port, the Pearl was gone.  
***  
  
In its place, sat a beautiful new-looking boat with a black base and silver sails. It had recently been completed because it looked and smelled like the harbor, not the ocean. Jack immediately fell in love with it.  
"I have to have that boat." Jack stated. "It is the most beautiful ship I have ever seen. Besides," he added quickly, "the Black Pearl of course." Jack, in his usual fashion, climbed up into the ship without permission. He looked around the deck for a while and then disappeared down below. In the mean time, Will and Elizabeth were trying to guess the one thing that he would find wrong with the ship, like he had with all 27 others. But when Jack emerged from below deck, he had no complaints. Will was awestruck. He was sure that this boat was just like any other that they had examined, but Jack thought otherwise. "I'll take it." "What?" Elizabeth exclaimed.  
"I said, I'll take it."  
Will and Elizabeth couldn't believe their ears. Jack was already purchasing the ship and conjuring up a name.  
"Whaddabout." He paused for a long time, "The Bonnie Lass." 


	3. Jax Silver

With the name in place and the ship in the harbor, Jack wanted to celebrate. He took Will and Elizabeth to the Faithful Bride for his favorite drink. Rum. During the celebration, Jack got a crazy idea. Since he liked gold, riches, and the life of luxury, but didn't like to stay in one place to enjoy an estate filled with his favorite possessions, Jack decided it was time for ship decoration. Jack wanted to have a luxurious well-furnished 'estate' on land. why not have one at sea? "Do you know of any Interior Decorators, Elizabeth? I've heard about them and how they turn ugly into 'well-furnished' in a heartbeat. I want my ship to be a ship of rich taste, you know, like your old house in Port Royal. I want my cabin to feel like in the king of the sea, and the whole ship to look like a palace." Elizabeth was shocked. The famous Cap'n Jack Sparrow, with a taste for decorating? No. She had to be hearing things. But she wasn't. Jack was serious and that's what scared her. "Maybe it's the rum," she told herself. Jack was not kidding and didn't plan to be. So the next thing you know, a letter to Elizabeth's Interior Decorator is being opened on the other side of Tortuga.  
***  
  
Early Monday morning, Jax Silver got a letter from her friend Elizabeth. Thinking it was a wedding invitation, she opened it right away. Much to her surprise, there was a letter that contained the strangest request. Elizabeth wanted Jax to decorate the inside of a pirate ship. She couldn't believe her eyes when she read the name of Elizabeth's friend who owned the boat. Captain Jack Sparrow. Jax knew Jack from the Black Pearl. She was a member of his crew way back when.  
"Well," she thought, "of course I'll do it! I haven't seen Jack in years! Not since he was Cap'n of the Pearl. But decorating? I guess he's changed since when I last saw him! I'll leave right away!" So packing commenced. All of her life, Jax had been dreaming of an opportunity to see Jack again. And this was her chance.  
"This time, I'm not letting him get away without me. As I recall, he left me in Tortuga ten years ago just before he was sentenced to that god- forsaken island in the heart of the Caribbean. I always thought he was brave, staying there alone until I sailed with my father's merchant ship to the island where they had used a trap door in the sand for a secret depository for rum. We took him back and he was never the same again, not without the Pearl." Jax boarded the boat in the harbor that would take her to the other side of the island where Cap'n and Elizabeth were. This would be an interesting visit.  
*** 


	4. A Vision of Loveliness

Chapter Four:  
  
Sailing into Tortuga for the first time in what seemed like ages, was a shock to Jax. No doubt she was anxious to see Elizabeth and Will, but she was more anxious to see her home town. Boy how it had changed.  
  
The taverns were as full as ever, but the streets were filled with merchants. When Jax grew up there, the merchants were scared to even set up shop in the street because of all the pirate thieves stealing right and left. But who could blame them? The town drunk was still lurking around somewhere and the buzz about the street was the usual gossip stories being passed around, slightly changing each time they were told. Trudging up to the newest Swann residence, Jax felt a sudden chill running up her spine. He was getting close. She could smell the rum. Suddenly the front door opened. Out stepped Jack. *****************************************************************  
  
Jack was in awe. No one bothered to tell Jack that the interior designer that Elizabeth hired was an old pirate from the Pearl. "What a horrible job," Jack thought to himself, "Why would anyone want to do that?" he paused "Well, I wanted to hire someone to design, and how do I do that without having someone occupy that job?"  
"That's interesting," Jack chuckled, "Sometimes, my good looks dominate over my brain power."  
"What good looks?" Jax said aloud. Jack didn't know that he had said that out loud. His cheeks flushed a red color. Very unusual for a pirate, especially Jack.  
  
Ignoring Jax's remarks about his looks, Jack continued to study her carefully. "Well, seems to be the same Jax I knew before, but something is different about her." Jack pondered the possibilities. "Same hair, same clothes," Jack suddenly realized his thought. "No, no, no, no, same STYLE of clothes, im sure she's changed them in the tem years that I've seen her, at least I HOPE she has," Jack thought reassuringly. *****************************************************************  
  
Meanwhile, Jax was wondering why Jack was staring at her. Immediately she had a thought. "Is my fly unzipped? Do I have something in my teeth? WHAT??" Jax felt very uneasy just standing there, so she broke the silence once more.  
"Captain Jack Sparrow! Why don't you just take a picture? It lasts longer!"  
  
Jack immediately realized what he was doing. Staring at a vision of loveliness. But of course he wasn't about to admit that. He was a pirate after all. He hadn't seen Jax in ten years, and he'd fancied her then as well.  
"Sorry, love," he said as pulled his eyes away. "I haven't seen you in such a long time. You surprised me, 'tis all." Suddenly he felt an urge to kiss her, and kiss her hard. He flung his arms out, and before he knew what he was doing, rushed to Jax's side. She realized what was about to happen and embraced it right away. She kissed him in such a way that he was speechless after the finished, which seldom happens to Jack. He was planning to kiss her, and he wasn't expecting the kind of passion that they shared. All at once, they fell in love. Again. ****************************************************************** 


	5. The Decorating Plan

Chapter Five:  
  
After Jax and Jack got properly acquainted, they proceeded to the newest Swann Residence. Elizabeth showed up at the door, and saw that Jack made a new friend. She was pleased because Jack was going to be working with Jax for a while. What she didn't know, is that they had known each other from the Pearl. Jax had conveniently failed to mention to Elizabeth that she was a pirate, so Elizabeth was wondering why Jack took to her so quickly. He usually doesn't do that unless he's drunk. Pushing that matter aside, Elizabeth called inside the manor for Will. Will had been working especially hard lately, making more swords than usual. The King of England had heard of his craftsmanship from across the ocean, and ordered thirty swords for all of his men. Elizabeth was constantly insisting on him taking a break, but he simply had to finish. Well she wasn't taking no for an answer this time.  
  
"WILLIAM TURNER!" Elizabeth boomed up the stairs, "COME DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!" Will got the message. He shot down the steps, and although he was working in soot and ash, he was dressed to kill. Elizabeth instantly melted in his glance. She was sorry she had yelled to him, but the wanted him near her. Plus, they had company.  
Jax was feeling warmth, and at the same time lack of breath from Jack's grasp around her torso. Will knew Jax from first glance. He had seen her at the port on the other side of Tortuga with a merchant boat, and knew she was a pirate. Will had stopped to talk to her once, and found out that she had sailed on the Pearl with Cap'n Sparrow. Obviously Jack remembered her, and tried to make her fancy him as he did her. They had a secret, and they weren't about to share it.  
"Jax! Come in! I haven't seen you in such a long time. What have you been up to?" Elizabeth began fussing over Jax, and made Will and Jack carry her bags inside. Jax was removing herself from Jack's grasp with much protest from the Cap'n, but they finally proceeded inside with all of her belongings in place.  
"Well Elizabeth, I've been sailing with my father's merchant ship, and decorating for all sorts of people. Which reminds me," Jax turned to Jack, "are you truly selling the Black Pearl?"  
"No, love. Not selling, SOLD." Jack said with a longing look in his eyes for more of the passion that lingered from their kiss. "The Pearl is gone, but her memories remain. I have another boat, just recently purchased in great need of redecoration! How soon can we start planning?"  
"No need to start so soon!" Will jumped in, realizing that Jax wanted some time to "catch up" with Jack. "Tonight is a night for celebration of a new lo-," he stopped himself. Maybe they didn't want their newly kindled love to be revealed yet. "Arrival," Will said, correcting himself.  
Suddenly, Jack's eyes lit up. "The tavern perhaps?"  
"Yes, well, you two go on ahead," Elizabeth said as she realized what Will had discovered between the two of them. "Will has some swords to finish up, and I have to get your room in order, Jax, but you two have fun!"  
Jack was the first out the door, pulling Jax behind him. The tavern was the perfect place to talk, and possibly become "friends" again. He knew that Jax had fallen for him, but who could blame her? Cap'n Sparrow was a strong pirate of great taste. For rum that is. And his red bandanna complemented his outfit just right.  
"He's perfect. The way he laughs, the way he stairs at me the way he does," Jax thought. "I've got to make him mine." Maybe it was the rum talking when Jack proposed an Interior Designer to decorate the ship. Because all that was on his mind right now, was Jax. He didn't wasn't her to decorate anything for him. He wanted her to devote her time to him, and they could be together at last. He had something to tell her.  
"Jax?" he said, looking deeply at her, "Im sorry for leaving you in Tortuga ten long years ago. Im sorry for not staying around when you rescued me from that island. I was scared of loving you. I was scared of loving anything that could slip through my fingers. Like the Pearl. My only chance for freedom, slipped away without a trace for the longest time. When I got 'er back, I realized how much she meant to me. But something wasn't right. Sure the ship had me original crew, but missing one member. The one member that kept me looking forward to the next day, to see her face. You. **************************************************************** 


End file.
